This invention relates to an inorganic health preservative whose regular daily use in small amounts improves the physical constitution of humans afflicted with cachexia.
As set forth in the Japanese published Unexamined Patent Application Ser. No. 150858/1980, the present inventor discovered that a material manufactured by a method similar but not the same as that of the present invention was very effective as an antiseptic additive to general compound feed for domestic animals, poultry and cultured fish. Namely, it was found that general compound feeds mixed with 0.5 to 1.0% by weight of the above-mentioned material had the advantages that the rotting and fermentation of the aforementioned feeds during storage was eliminated; the animals which took a feed mixed with said material were completely free of various diseases; excrement from these animals was rendered substantially odorless; the farms could maintain a clean environment, suppressing the offensive odors which hitherto unavoidably permeated the surroundings of the farms; and the meat of the animals which took the aforesaid feed mixed with said medical material was improved in taste. Futhermore, the fat of the meat was reduced; and the death rate of the animals and their offsprings were noticeably decreased. Thus, livestock and poultry breeders and fishermen enjoyed great success with the above-mentioned material.
Hitherto, expensive organic synthetic sterilizers or antibiotics were applied as antiseptic additives to general compound feeds and also as medical materials for sick animals. In recent years, however, it has been noted that such synthetic sterilizers or antibiotics lead to the growth of cancer in humans who eat the meat or eggs of animals raised by feeds mixed with said antiseptic or antibiotic additives. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan finally prohibited the addition of any of the above-mentioned organic medical materials to animal feeds. At present, however, no effective substitute has been found for these organic medical materials. Consequently, feed dealers, fish culturists and animal raisers have been quite at a loss what to do. Moreover, the supervising government administration has failed to find a proper method of guiding the dealers of the aforesaid antiseptic or antibiotic materials.
In such circumstances as mentioned above, the present inventor disclosed an invention of a purely inorganic feed additive in the aforesaid Japanese Patent Application as a result of studies and experiments conducted over ten years. This invented inorganic feed additive has been officially approved by the Japanese government to be able to eliminate the aforesaid difficulties and to realize the noticeable effects. In 1982, the director of the Science and Technology Administration of the Japanese government granted a letter of commendation of the present inventor.
A product embodying the above-mentioned invention is a greyish white powderly inorganic antiseptic which is to be added to general compound feeds. This product is manufactured by mixing 1 to 2 parts by weight of flyash with 8 parts by weight of crystalline ferrous sulfate heptahydrate (FeSO.sub.4.7H.sub.2 O), and drying the mixture at a temperature of 65.degree. to 85.degree. C. for about 30 minutes while stirring to obtain shattered granules of the almost neutralized mixed product.
Crystalline ferrous sulfate heptahydrate is a substantially useless, strongly acidic and deliquescent coarse granular substance having a pH value of about 3, which can be obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of titanium white using sulfuric acid. To date, manufactures of titanium-white have been extremely troubled with the disposal of this by-product. Hitherto, the by-product has been transported to the open sea and dumped therein.
When thermally dried for about 30 minutes at a temperature of 64.degree. to 85.degree. C., the coarse granular crystals of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate break by themselves into shattered granules. At this time, part of the water of crystallization is evaporated, causing the heptahydrous crystals to turn into a stable white or faintly green shattered substance mainly consisting of ferrous sulfate monohydrate. Ferrous sulfate has long been utilized as a blood-making medicine.
Flyash is formed of very fine globular particles obtained when the vapor of coal ash melted at a temperature of about 1,200.degree. C. is cooled in a flue during the burning of coal in a steam power station. The flyash is generally recovered by a dust collector. The flyash is a grayish white powdery by-product which consists of inorganic oxides activated by high temperature and has high alkalinity with the pH value estimated at about 12. The flyash contains extremely small amounts of oxides of P, Ca, Mg, K, Na, B, Mo, Mn, Se, Pb and Cu as the so-called minerals. Although part of the by-product flyash is sometimes applied as a lubricant to be mixed with cement mortar, the greater part of it is wasted.
When the coarse crystals of ferrous sulfate heptahydrated mixed with the aforementioned percentage of flyash are thermally dried at a temperature of 65.degree. to 85.degree. C. for about 30 minutes, the crystals naturally break into shattered granules, causing part of the water of crystallization to be removed. Further, the surfaces of the shattered granules are covered with the fine powder of flyash, cohering to the granules. As a result, hygroscopicity of the ferrous sulfate is prevented, thereby improving the slipperiness of the shattered granules. The particles of ferrous sulfate and those of flyash are mutually neutralized, causing the pH value of the mixed mass to be reduced to a low alkalinity of about 9. When this low alkaline substance is added to animal feeds, the feeds as a whole indicate also very low alkalinity, and is rendered suitable for the preservation of the health of animals together with the effect of minerals contained in the feed.
Addition of 0.5 to 1.0% by weight of this additive to a general compound feed has an advantage that the mixed feed can be safely stored for five months during summer season, whereas general compound feeds destitute of said additive rot within a month's storage in the summer time. The further merits of said additive are that animals which have eaten the compound feeds mixed with this additive have improved blood circulation, and are free from various diseases; almost all domestic animals, which have hitherto tended to become sick, can dispense with medicine; the death rate of infant pigs becomes almost zero percent; their excrement does not decompose but has a substantially oderless semisolid form, whereby the environment in which the animals are raised being prominently improved; the minerals contained in the additive enable harmful substaces grown in the animal body to be excreted out therefrom; and a synergistic effect of ferous sulfate and flyash enable the animals to have good health free from almost all diseases.